The butterflies of Lost Creek have led us to SyFy’s newest ghost-hunting ‘reality’ show, “Ghost Mine”. Premiering in January, the Season 1 finale episode is set to air tonight. I happened to catch up on the show on one of my days off work, when SyFy aired all the episodes as a marathon leading up to the new episode. I’d seen commercials for the show, and was skeptical before I watched it. Little did I know….“Ghost Mine” is set at the once-abandoned Crescent Mine in Oregon. The story goes that the old gold mine had been abandoned, not because the gold ran out, but because of paranormal activity that drove workers away. New owner Larry Overman had already had one entire crew walk out on him, so this go round he’s brought in Patrick Doyle and Kristen Lumen, supposed paranormal investigators, to assure the men they are safe working in the mine.

Better than anything the 'investigators' have captured

More like a mini-series than a reality show, Season 1 follows the miners and the investigators as they search for gold and ghosts. There are no revolving locations; we stay at the Crescent Mine, with side trips to a local bed and breakfast and other sites that tie in to the Crescent mystery. The investigators seem to have happened upon an extremely haunted location as they immediately begin capturing evidence that causes even the most skeptical miner to wonder. Capturing good evidence is rare, and Patrick and Kristen appear to capture it over and over, presenting their findings to the miners.

I tried to watch objectively, but I couldn’t help but notice that while staying on site in their own primitive cabin, the investigators always appeared ready for camera. Kristen’s hair always looks professionally done. Then I noticed that even the miners seemed too good to be true. Everything, from their clothes down to their beards, seemed a little too stereotypical. I began to wonder if they weren’t all hired actors. Or actual miners coached and rehearsed at the very least.

The action picks up when Kristen and Patrick are watching the miners work on monitors set up in their cabin. Duck and Jay are working when they hear a strange banging sound. After the second time it’s heard, Duck says its ‘Tommyknockers’ and decides to get out of there. Kristen and Patrick meet them when they come out to ask them about what happened. Soon after, Duck packs up his things and ‘tramps’ out, leaving his job and telling foreman Stan it’s due to the Tommyknockers. When Kristen and Patrick go inside the mine to investigate, they find a cave in not far from where Duck and Jay heard the strange sounds.

When mine owner Larry showed up upset that Patrick and Kristen were sharing evidence with the miners and insisting that they only do so with him or the foreman, and reminds them that their job is to convince the miners of their safety, I became convinced that what was being presented as a reality series was scripted fiction. Sure this guy could have stormed onto the site and gave them a piece of his mind, but it was the reactions of the investigators that convinced me that wasn’t so. Patrick does all the talking, assuring Larry they will do as they are told, while Kristen just sits there with an obnoxious look on her face. Later when the miners invite them to join them at the campfire, Kristen assures them that they will continue to share any evidence they find with the miners, leaving out that owner Larry said not to, going on to tell them that if the investigators ever feel like the miners are in danger they will let them know they think they need to get out of there. Ignoring Larry’s warnings, she goes on to tell them she believes something malevolent is in the mine.

Much ado occurs when miners Graybeard and Jamal are working and notice the smoke from Graybeard’s pipe blowing sideways. This spooks them, as they say there shouldn’t be any breeze in the tunnel and they make haste getting out of the mine. Watching them on the monitors, Patrick and Kristen meet them at the mouth of the mine to ask them about what happened. In all his years in the mine, Graybeard says he’s never seen anything like it. Jamal, who is married to a Native American and professes a belief in spirits, is spooked as well. The investigators enter with enough high tech equipment to make any ghost hunter drool. They find strange air flow measurements, but that’s about it.

Up until this point it could be that SyFy just happened upon a really good location to shoot their show. Being the daughter of a retired mine inspector, seeing someone smoking a pipe underground set off alarms in my head. Unless gold mines are unlike coal mines in that there are no hazardous gasses like methane that could be combustible, the pipe was just a prop to illustrate phantom breezes. If smoking’s a no-no, then why is this guy constantly got a pipe in his mouth? And on camera? Seems reminiscent of Amish Mafia and Moonshiners on the Discovery Channel blatantly breaking the law with next to no concern of repercussions. But then the investigators are contacted by a local who wants to secretly meet with them. Taking their truck to what looks like a very obscure location (but could actually be along the same road that leads to the Crescent Mine) they wait until another pickup pulls in, driven by an older man. He tells them his son was part of the first crew Larry had at the mine that walked off. He tells them a couple spook tales related to the mine, then asks if they’ve noticed any Masonic imagery. We were told a few episodes back that the Masons were involved with the mine, and once used the bed and breakfast in town as a meeting hall. The man draws a map for Patrick and Kristen, telling them to look for large rocks. These rocks are supposed to mark the entrance to a hidden mining tunnel. When they return to the site and start looking for the rocks, they are immediately joined by, who else, Foreman Stan, who quickly finds a piece of granite with 3 holes drilled in it to form a triangle. Nearby they find the other two similar rocks, and Stan gets one of the guys to jump in a dozer and move the dirt. After a few scoops, they see mining timbers, and soon have the hidden entrance uncovered. They send in Patrick’s RIPA robot, which finds a bulkhead blocking the path. When they go in on foot to inspect it, they find Masonic markings on it. When asked why someone would block a tunnel off like this, the miners tell them it could be because there’s something behind there somebody doesn’t want found…like a large deposit of gold. About as un-superstitious as you can get, miner Eddie takes an axe and makes short work of the blockage. Always keeping safety first, they send RIPA ahead, but when she becomes unresponsive to the controls, they go to see what the problem is. While Patrick and Kristen try to fix RIPA, Stan and Eddie, anxious to see what the bulkhead was hiding, continue on to discover a rich vein of gold.

The 'investigators'

If it weren’t for those pesky kids….Larry wouldn’t have uncovered the tunnel with the mother load, or have gotten a crew to stay onsite, or been any closer to solving the puzzle of the Crescent that involves the Freemasons, a ghost named Joe, and the haunting that seems to blanket the entire town of Sumpter. I’ve done a lot of digging, and couldn’t find any previous stories about the mine being haunted. Of course the only people on site were most likely miners, possibly with a handful of others, so I can’t rule out a real haunting based solely on that. So I decided to investigate the investigators. Considering all the bells and whistles on RIPA; IR cameras, real time audio, floodlights, and about 20 other features, I wondered what Patrick and Kristen did for day jobs. You’re not going to build a toy like RIPA on minimum wage. It turns out that Patrick does have a history in the paranormal world. Since the ‘Ghost Mine’ premiere, Patrick’s old website, “Haunted Hoax” has been taken down. Quotes he made in the past showed that he sided with the skeptics, and likened ghost hunting to an addiction: “These sensational encounters and the person's undying commitment to prove the existence of ghosts and the afterlife have created a dependency -- A need for the chemical rush they receive during intense situations, amplified by anxiety, desire and anticipation.” He goes on to explain how he knows these ‘paranormal reality’ shows aren’t real: “These TV shows are entertainment. It's all entertainment value. It's 100% entertainment. It’s not real in the paranormal field. It's not. It's all just put out there. It's shot, it’s edited, it’s put together and tied with advertising to get you to watch. And then the networks make the money off the advertising dollars.” He adds, “TV shows are staged because they are getting something every episode. It just doesn't work that way. You gotta remember they are on a network called SyFy, Science fiction. It's not true.”

Then there’s his investigating partner, Kristen Luman. It didn’t take much digging to expose Kristen’s past, which unlike Patrick’s, doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the paranormal. If you go to imdb.com and look at Ghost Mine’s page, it lists Patrick Doyle and Kristen P. Luman as being on the show. Where’d her middle initial come from? A little digging exposed her other imdb page, listing Kristen Luman as appearing in 3 films, including “Harvest of Fear.” She’s even in the trailer for that one, shown below (appears at 1:19). Adding that initial would keep anyone checking her out from realizing she had a prior acting career, unless they kept digging. More research unearthed the fact that Kristen once appeared in a Girls Gone Wild video as well.

Entertaining. Great story. But don’t insult me by thinking I’ll believe all these coincidences were stumbled upon. Either SyFy sent out a dozen crews to a dozen different locations, and chose the one with the most compelling evidence, or they totally scripted the entire show. Look at it this way, professional wrestling is fake, does that stop people from watching? Hell no, it’s a multi-million dollar industry. Presenting this stuff as a reality show is an insult to true paranormal investigators who are out there searching for the truth. It taints the ghost hunting community, and could cause people to question actual evidence. Don’t present something as reality when it so obviously isn’t. Actors, wardrobe, props, writing, they all did exceptional jobs. Too good to be true actually. Just admit the obvious, and I’ll happily watch. Don’t insult actual investigators who are not faking evidence and making up the story as they go. I hope the creators and participants are haunted by relentless poltergeists as penance for their deceptions.

Kristen Lumen was never in a "Girls Gone Wild" video. She has previously worked as a model and actress, and was merely paid to make an appearance at the "Girls Gone Wild Magazine" premiere. She walked a red carpet, smiled for some photos, and surely cashed a check afterwards. None of this is a secret, it is all very well documented.

On the other hand, I have maintained that this show is scripted since episode 1, but the general public has a very limited view on how they think television shows are produced. The best example to give would be in the scenes where Foreman Sam rushes into, (without EVER knocking) the investigators cabin. Nobody in the real world would barge in on another in a setting such as this without at least knocking first. Obviously a discussion was made to prepare for shooting, then the scene was set up, and filmed. Anybody who has any experience in film knows the ludicrous cost of production. It would be a waste of money and resources to film 24 hours a day. Production Crews need rest too.

Also, prior to production, as with ALL media, there is a vetting process to procure a cast that is "photogenic", and will work well under the conditions of filming, so it is no doubt in my mind that the cast of this show was meticulously selected, miners and investigators. Having an acting/modeling background would only bolster your resume`. Further more, I don't know too many people who would pass up a paying acting job, regardless of their current employment or degree.

But I suppose that there are individuals out there in the world that, even though they probably work a McDonald's drive-thru, they will claim they know more about T.V. production, paranormal investigation, aliens... blah, blah, blah, etc... than the people who actually do these things for a living.

Hey you guys....I know graybeard "Dick Seacord and you can ask anyone in this town and they will tell you that he smokes that pipe all freaking the time!! it is not a prop... plus that mine is haunted, maybe it is semi scripted and maybe some of that stuff is made up, BUT those guys are really mining and I challenge anyone to go up there and not get spooked out!!!!

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Kendoe

10/16/2013

Kristen is a hot totty , Who cares about the rest .

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Michael310

10/17/2013

Nero is absolutely correct. No "reality"shows on television are truly reality. Nearly every production company I've worked with on reality shows are mostly scripted to some degree. Time is money, so things have to condensed, outlined, planned and a schedule has to be stuck to. Location Scouts are paid well to research and seek out the best location for their production. They probably looked over a ton of mining sites before settling. And you think Kristin putting an initial in her name is to hide something? Sorry, doubtful. It's all goes back to rules & regulations when a performer joins the Screem Actors Guild. If there is already a dues paying member with your name (doesn't matter if it's your legal name or not), the new member will have to differentiate their name by using a PKA (Professionally Known As or AKA), they'll have to use their full name or at least use an initial. It all goes back to residuals and royalty reasons. So her having multiple names on IMDB isn't mysterious in the least. In the industry, that's all old hat. I known a ton of actors that have multiple PKA/AKA's and it shows in IMDB. And yeah, the whole reason for becoming an actor is to be paid, that's how you pay your bills. So you'll find very few struggling actors whil will turn down a paying job where they get credit, pay and recognition. If I was an actor and on a "reality" show, I'd play the part of an orthopedic surgeon and would let them bill me as such if it was a good pay check and the world gets to see me on TV every week.....I think too many people in other parts of the country who work outside of the entertainment industry really get sucked into the whole "reality" TV label. You think that Kardashian crap show is reality? Of course not. That show has more of a complete script than a 120 minute large budget film.....

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Mike O.

10/29/2013

Fake or not, its a fun show. Who cares?

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Shelly House

10/30/2013

I'm sorry but is it wrong for an actress to also be a paranormal investigator, not I think all you guys are bunch of dumb ass. so I guess think Ghost Hunters are real not. It's all fake also. have any of you seen or heard something you couldn't explain? I know I have and I'm not stupid

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Jan

11/27/2013

Hi - is it wrong for an actor to be a President :-) or a Senator ;-) people change careers or have a few different ones. I like this show and so do my teen girls. To be honest I enjoy watching this show it is something we can see as a family. :-) Can't wait for season 3

I'm not trying to say that most of you guys are dumb.. but im that most of you guy never work at a mine or know anything about mining.. I do I started mining when I was 18.. (I'm 26 now) and I started working underground at 18.. our mine was 2000 ft underground and that was some scary shit.. And me and my crew would always hear noises that wornt normal the type of noises that made the hairs on your back stand up real quick.. Even when I started working on the surface me and other guys would see stuff at night.. Some of the guys would even get mad if you talk about.. I remember one of my bosses telling me (shut up and don't say shit or don't be going around and following shadows) some say that the ghost are the old miners that are still trying to run the area/equipment.. Remember MSHA was not form until 1977 so a lot of miner did die.. In my old mine since it open In the 1950s 10 miners die in that mine since.. All I'm saying Is that even if the show is fake or real mines are hunted

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DD

11/13/2013

With all the paranormal activity causing the servailance camers to glitch, why aren't the other cameras that are recording the show acting up as well?

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TPB

11/16/2013

I enjoy this show, no matter scripted; it's fun. I've also wondered whether he whole thing is a hoax perpetrated by Patrick to prove his point. Cameras are easy to manipulate and CGI is so seamless, it could easily be.

What got me this season is the bulkhead that lead them outside. When I saw it, I immediately noticed the vertical boards had been nailed from the other side than the men were on. If that was built, it was a helluva lot of work to make a fake tunnel on the side of a cliff. I was surely surprised to note than none of the experienced miners had made note of the same thing. Any miner worth his salt should have seen that faster than I. It seems to me, on the other hand, that there are likely claim maps to be had and it would be fairly simple to determine a path to that shaft if they already knew it was there.

My two centavos, for the moment.

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Jan

11/27/2013

I noticed that too! I was thinking he can kick those boards in because they are nailed from the back which did not make sense. :-) I am glad you caught it too. I wish we had an actual time lapse walk from the opening of the mine to the various bulkheads to really see how long those tunnels are. Pretty cool :-)

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Jan

11/27/2013

I noticed that too! I was thinking he can kick those boards in because they are nailed from the back which did not make sense. :-) I am glad you caught it too. I wish we had an actual time lapse walk from the opening of the mine to the various bulkheads to really see how long those tunnels are. Pretty cool :-)

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Jan

11/27/2013

I noticed that too! I was thinking he can kick those boards in because they are nailed from the back which did not make sense. :-) I am glad you caught it too. I wish we had an actual time lapse walk from the opening of the mine to the various bulkheads to really see how long those tunnels are. Pretty cool :-)

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Jan

11/27/2013

I noticed that too! I was thinking he can kick those boards in because they are nailed from the back which did not make sense. :-) I am glad you caught it too. I wish we had an actual time lapse walk from the opening of the mine to the various bulkheads to really see how long those tunnels are. Pretty cool :-)

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Mr Skeptic

11/20/2013

I'm more interested in the mining aspect than the supposed haunting.
Watch Patrick when he's talking to the camera. He appears very hesitant and mechanical.
Every time the haunting crap comes on I fast forward thru it. Thank god for Tivo.

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Rev. Hui Shen

11/23/2013

This show was easily recognizable as fake when I recognized several actors in it besides Kristen. Kristen's imdb page is easy to find and confirm. That combined with the fact that none of these shows is real made it obvious this is a fraud. What I hate is the way the show insults miners. Hoever, at least one miner is real: Pap Smurf (Stan).

Jacques Cousteau and Marlin Perkins faked things in every show they did. But they didn't lie. They spoke about it openly. They invented reenactments. The trouble is, where is that law that says if you faked a show it has to be disclaimered "for entertainment only"??

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Dave Blitz

11/24/2013

Everybody calm down its just a tv show...........jezz

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mimi

11/26/2013

why is everyone so upset? it's tv people. i do however believe in some of the paranormal stuff. i live in a house that has had "things" happen. it can be scary at times but for the most part its just interesting. whatever, its just a show.

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Jan

11/27/2013

I am happy to have this show as something that my girls and I can enjoy together - we would love to visit the mine! That would be a cool thing. Just nice to have time with the kids and not be embarrassed by the content :-)

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John Roberts

12/6/2013

Fake? Fake?? Next you'll tell me that CBS' cult leader serial killer Red John wasn't real. But the laugh would be on you because we all SAW him! Now we have a stone and bricked bulkhead in the Crescent Mine that took a long time to build and to keep something in. Yes, I wondered where that "thing" they were trying to keep in had been while the masonic miners painstakingly built the bulkhead, but maybe they had it tied up. And when they broke through the wood bulkhead, they showed one of the miners looking into the darkness (objective shot), then showed a shadow move across the screen (subjective shot). I also noticed how the scenes fit seamlessly together. The miner looks in, we see the shadow, then, from another angle, we see the miner continuing to make a movement he'd made when the camera was on the other side. The only way that could happen was to have two cameras constantly shooting, but the only people in that cramped space were two miners and a camera operator. But there's probably a good reason for that. BUT the most fascinating problem with the story from a skeptic's standpoint would be that they found a shaft with a large vein of gold. Instead of going after it, they decided to break down the Masonic brick wall with a warning on it, which let the foul-smelling thing out that then destroyed the entire mine (with not a single casualty). Then leaving that rich vein of gold buried in the rubble, the entire crew packed up and left. Not to worry, though. Next season there's an even creepier mine they found in Arizona. And it's even more haunted than the Crescent Mine. And guess what? That mine's crews also had walked out and now the owner wants the Crescent Mine's miners to take over that job! It's almost like he KNEW they would be available. Guess it was either that or come up with the gold that was in the other shaft. If that's not proof that the supernatural is involved, I don't know what will convince you skeptics! Oh, and did anyone happen to catch the name of that bed & breakfast out there in Oregon? The one with no guests staying at it? I might want to spend a day or two there.

Let me begin by saying that hauntings are real. I was a police officer for over 25 years and during that time I was witness to many unusual events that I could not offer any rational explanation for. Some of these were calls by homeowners and the majority were at the Defunct Essex County psychiatric hospital and the Essex County Penetentiary
After telling my watch commander of what I experienced, he scratched his head and said, " are you bullshitting me?". We were close friends and as far as reports were concerned..."INCIDENT UNFOUNDED". after that he told me that any future calls of this nature call him on his cell phone and he would meet me there. After several times of being dispatched to these places, he looked at me and said, " We've been friends along time. I never once doubted you. But when you came to me and layed all this on me, I thought that you might be losing it after all these years. But I was wrong....I've never in my life experienced this spooky stuff..."And I'll tell you straight from my heart......I WILL NEVER GO THERE AGAIN!!!!.......What I've seen there's no explanation for. And we'll keep this to ourselves because no one will ever believe it!!!!
Trust me guys, this stuff is real!! After all of what we witnessed over several years, The TV Show GHOST ADVENTURES did a show dedicated to these sites in 2012, and they walked away with amazing footage, recordings and other information!!

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Dave H

12/21/2013

I just finished season 2 and I was curious about when Jay and Dingus we're clearing the muck of the final bulkhead and Jay saw the shadow; the camera angle changed to be in front of him even though there was nobody there before and never showed the camera behind Dingus even though they were both handy cams. I realized this happens a lot on the show but I didn't pay careful attention so I will have to watch the series again to look closer at these. This indicates they are either re-enacting actual events from a different angle or they somehow fit another camera person out of view though that didn't look possible in that situation (they were both handy cams).

Another thing is in the finale, while everything looked convincing, I wonder what the explosion was at the end that appeared to cave in the entrance that nobody questioned. They shouldn't have had dynamite close enough to go off in the case of a cave-in or tremor, and everybody just sort of walked away without much forlorn or long stares at all the work they lost. Maybe they're getting paid enough by the show that it didn't matter. I don't think Stan would risk his credibility by faking a mining show but there is definitely some questionable camera work.

In any case the story of Crescent and the mines themselves are enigmatic, especially the Masonic symbols, and it's too bad they couldn't see what was behind that last wall.

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Rev. Hui Shen

1/1/2014

"Just a show"?--How about "oh calm down, it's just FRAUD", because that's what it is when a show says it is one thing but it is really the complete opposite. That is the material point here. Show me what you like but do not insult my intelligence and break the law by lying about the show.

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Carrina Hanson

1/15/2014

So I know a lot of people have been questioning Kristen Luman's credibility pertaining to her parapsychology background. Turns out she did go to PSU, and she did study the paranormal. Check it out. http://www.pdx.edu/news/alumni-news-kristen-luman-syfys-ghost-mine-talks-about-her-experiences-show

All it takes is a little extra research. Pretty cruddy folks feel they can drag people's name through the mud based on what they think they know.

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Carrina Hanson

1/15/2014

Another thing, I do feel a lot of what happened in the show was sensationalized and even perhaps staged, I find it hard to dismiss all the things in the show that turned out to be real. The town of Sumpter is a real place, and it was filmed on location. Digging in I found that the stories told about the area to be true. This is what I liked about the show. The entertainment value was from the Paranormal aspect of it, but there was a lot of great research done about the area to get the stories behind it. The mining was also really interesting to me, and it was cool to see hard rock mining in a show for a change. So while the show is certainly staged to a degree, I have to say with all the research that had to be done, the town's history and the realness of the mine it's self, it is still an interesting and somewhat educational show. I really enjoyed it, personally.

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Mandy Fleming is a freelance adventurer, philosophical theorist, and lover of anything spooky.